A former Nazi concentration camp secretary has been found in Germany after failing to appear in court for the beginning of her trial.
Irmgard Furchner is accused of assisting with the murder of 11,412 people when she was an 18-year-old typist at the Stutthof concentration camp in occupied Poland during World War II between 1943 and 1945.
Court spokesperson Frederike Milhoffer confirmed Thursday the 96-year-old Furchner had been found after leaving her home early and taking a taxi “to an unknown location.”
Milhoffer said an arrest warrant had been issued for Furchner and that a physician was assessing whether she is healthy enough for imprisonment.
Furchner’s trial could not begin in the far northern town of Itzehoe without her presence. Milhoffer said the next court hearing was scheduled for Oct. 19.
Furchner is the latest nonagenarian to face charges of Holocaust crimes in what is perceived as an expedited approach by prosecutors to seize the final chances to seek justice for the victims of some of the worst mass murders in history.
About 65,000 people died in the concentration camp between 1939 and 1945 in the camp's gas chamber or of starvation and disease. The victims were Jews caught up in the Nazi’s horrific extermination campaign and prisoners of war.
(Information for this report comes from Reuters and AFP.)
